Thirsty?

Jeremiah 2:13  for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. 

The first sin was forsaking God. The second sin was trying to get for themselves what God gives freely, abundantly, and continuously. The image of a fountain of living water compared to a broken cistern incapable of holding any water is a striking one. It's like comparing Niagara Falls to a mud puddle. It's amazing to me how easy it is for human beings to reject their creator, to turn from his abundance and try so hard to replace the very thing we leave behind. Consider all the ways mankind tries to fulfill the needs that can only be fulfilled by God: false notions of love, truth, beauty, service, worship, relationships and so many others. Consider the movies, television shows, even commercials, that bombard our senses. I wonder if we even realize the degree that we're affected and shaped by these things. It's so subtle. 

I grew up in the fifties with the TV shows of that era. In the span of my lifetime, I'm astounded by the changes in what we see and bring into our homes through various media. How is it that we have allowed these things to shape our understanding of beauty and love, truth and justice? They are such a pitiful replacement for all that God offers us and blesses us with. I'm not trying to single out television as the source of all negativity but it's a good example of how we have turned from the things of God to the things that are man-made and allowed those things to become our standard. We have replaced a fountain of living waters for a broken, leaky, useless cistern. We're thirsty and wandering in dry places looking for water.

The longer I walk with the Lord, the more I am astounded by his love and his provision - his intimate, attentive involvement in every aspect of my life. I've learned to trust him more and more, to lean on him for the strength I can't find anywhere else. I've experienced what the transforming power of his love can do in my own life and how I see myself and others in my world. I've seen that love reach people who had given up on themselves and on God; watched him turn their lives upside down and fill them with the knowledge of his love and forgiveness - his very presence and nearness. 

What a mighty God we serve! What an injustice we do in limiting and diminishing his love and power and how much we miss out on because of those limits. I have seen how much God loves to bless us - to pour on us his living water, to allow us to splash in that fountain and receive his blessings, his healings, his love. When we turn away from God or try to fit him in some convenient mold that diminishes him, we are removing ourselves from the place of blessing. We are turning away from unlimited, unconditional love that is that fountain of living water and, instead, finding ourselves settling for so very much less - a pitiful substitute than can't begin to fill the holes in our souls, the thirst for all God has for us. We are trying to find water in a leaky, empty well.

No wonder God calls that a sin. We put ourselves in place of God. We rely on our supposed know-how and ability, turning our backs on God. If sin is anything that separates us from God, certainly our self-sufficiency and pridefulness separate us more than anything else. 

“You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless, until they can find rest in you.” This well-known quote from St. Augustine states the point of this posting so beautifully. God created us, loves us and is always calling us to return to his fountain of living waters, to know what it means to find true rest. He invites us to cease striving, to come to him and receive his love and peace.

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water....Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
(John 4:9-16, 39-42 ESV)